Have you ever tried to open a distribution list in Outlook with mail delivery set to an Exchange 2003 mailbox and find that it will not open?  Instead you receive the following error message, “Can't open this item. Out of memory or system resources. Close some windows or programs and try again." This can be frustrating when you have that important circular to send out by the end of the day.

There is a limit to how many contacts you can create in a distribution list stored in Microsoft Exchange Server mail box store. There is no definite limit to the number of contacts as the exact limit is based on the total file size of the contacts.  A typical number of contacts that you should add to a distribution list is between 50 contacts and 70 contacts. However, if the contacts contain lots of information, the distribution list limit should be as small as 25 contacts.

So how can you open the distribution list that has become too big without having to recreate it?

You need to make it smaller. Simply export the distribution list to a .pst file and make another copy. Delete the second half of contacts, rename the distribution list and import it back into the Exchange mailbox or public folder. Then using the second copy of the .pst file delete the first half of the list, rename and import the distribution list. You will now have two smaller distribution lists that you can now open.

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